In the last year, I uncovered a personal, romantic, relationship between two employees at work, a facilitator, and a frontline employee. This relationship had not yet been reported to leadership
or human resources. Not disclosing the relationship is against company policy and could potentially lead to separation of employment for both employees. When applying the process for making an ethical decision to the dilemma, the relationship was beneficial to both parties as it was meeting their immediate self-interest and was in the preconventional stage. The relationship was harmful because it positioned the frontline employee to be at an advantage for
receiving information not disclosed to other employees. The two employees were within their rights to engage in this relationship but denied the organization their rights to make informed decisions about training placement and information disclosed to the facilitator. This relationship
created a moral problem due to the sensitive information that the facilitator is exposed to from the leadership team. He could potentially be sharing this information with his partner, the frontline employee. At times, the information available can impact the employee’s day-to-day operations. This dilemma also posed economic concerns because the employee would have access to overtime opportunities in advance of other employees. If the relationships sours, it could also impact their ability to conduct themselves professionally while in the office. If one of the employees were impacted by a family emergency, both could miss their shifts which would also impact the organization. Legally speaking, other employees may report a perceived bias if the facilitator demonstrated any favoritism towards the employee. As a leader in the organization, I have a duty to act and escalate this uncovered relationship. I met with the employees and advised them I would have to report the relationship to HR as it was against policy not to do so. I did offer the employee the opportunity to report by the end of business the following day. Both employees agreed and committed to doing so. I then followed up with HR the following day to report what I was aware of regarding the relationship. The ethical decision-making process matched the actual sequence of events for the dilemma. Before Discussion Topic:
The steps for the process of making an ethical decision are described in
Chapter 4
of your text. Using the steps, describe an ethical dilemma you have faced in the last year, and apply the steps to the process.
Using your own experience as well as the material from Chapter 4 of the text, address the following in your response:
Describe the ethical dilemma you were facing.
Apply the process for making an ethical decision to the dilemma, ensuring you include each step in the process.
Does the solution you arrived at when applying the process match what actually happened? Why or why not?
Explain how you might use the ethical decision-making process in your own personal or professional life.
